Widespread critical acclaim, heavy radio airplay and a massive publicity campaign before and after its release on August 25, 1975 (with cover appearances on Time and Newsweek magazines in the same week) quickly made Bruce Springsteen’s do-or-die third album, Born To Run, the desired chart topper and commercial success. After the disappointments of his first two albums, Greetings From Asbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle, Springsteen spent 14 months recording the album and Columbia Records anted up a reported $250,000 to promote it, and it paid off. Born To Run hit the Billboard Top 10 in its second week and reached #3, spending over 6 months on the charts, reaching gold status and #18 on the Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time. It’s a giant album with giant sounds modeled after Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” from the 60s – layers of guitars, echoing vocals, ringing keyboards and plenty of rolling drums underneath. That technique catapults the title track into the stratosphere, but Born To Run also includes FM radio classic rockers “Thunder Road,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and the more subdued “Jungleland.” Born To Run is available on Amazon and iTunes, and the Boss is in Dr. Rock’s Playlist Vault.
